Sony is so happy with the directing-acting team of Ryan Murphy ('Glee')-Julia Roberts in the soon-to-be-released 'Eat Pray Love' that the studio has hired Murphy to write (for $2.5 million) and direct (for another $2.5 million) an untitled star vehicle for Roberts, according to Deadline Hollywood. The romantic comedy centers on a working woman married to a stay-at-home husband whose roles are reversed when she loses her job and has to adjust to motherhood.
Sony is so happy with the directing-acting team of Ryan Murphy ('Glee')-Julia Roberts in the soon-to-be-released 'Eat Pray Love' that the studio has hired Murphy to write (for $2.5 million) and direct (for another $2.5 million) an untitled star vehicle for Roberts, according to Deadline Hollywood. The romantic comedy centers on a working woman married to a stay-at-home husband whose roles are reversed when she loses her job and has to adjust to motherhood.

Doug Liman certainly is eclectic. The director has moved from male bonding films ('Swingers') to action-thrillers ('The Bourne Identity') to sci-fi ('Jumper') and biodrama (the forthcoming 'Fair Game' about outed CIA agent Valerie Plame). Now he's attached to direct 'The Last of the Tribe: The Epic Quest to Save a Lone Man in the Amazon,' a non-fiction book by Monte Reel that was acquired by Chockstone Pictures. According to Variety, Reel, the South American correspondent for the Washington Post, "chronicled the search for the last surviving member of an Amazon tribe from the perspective of the government agents charged with both verifying his existence and preserving his way of life." Chockstone is not a newcomer to the literary film genre: it brought Cormac McCarthy's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel "The Road" to the big screen last year.

David O. Russell, who co-wrote and was directing 'Nailed,' a political satire/romantic comedy starring Jessica Biel and Jake Gyllenhaal, has left the production. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Russell has withdrawn from the $26 million feature after one-on-one negotiations with financier Ronald Tutor, who controls rights to the movie with Pangea Media Group CEO David Bergstein, broke down. THR reports that Russell apparently was not happy that producers Doug Wick and Lucy Fisher of Red Wagon Prods. were being squeezed to cut their fees in half. Tutor told THR that "we're going to go ahead probably with 'Nailed' and try to hire another director and finish it." The film is about a small town waitress who gets a nail accidentally lodged in her head, causing unpredictable behavior that leads her to Washington, D.C., where sparks fly when she meets a clueless young senator who takes up her cause.

Development Heaven: 'Heretics,' based on an episode from the public radio series 'This American Life' that explored the true story of Carlton Pearson, a rising star in the evangelical movement who was ostracized by his own church and declared a heretic after he started preaching that there is no Hell -- is being developed as a potential directing vehicle for Marc Forster ('Monster's Ball,' 'Quantum of Solace'). Forster is currently directing 'Machine Gun Preacher' for Lionsgate [THR] ... 'Archangels,' a spec script about a covert group of agents who battle aliens secretly living among humans, is being developed by New Regency and Scott Free. Joseph Kosinski, who helmed 'Tron: Legacy,' which is scheduled for a December release, is attached to direct. The sci-fi actioner is being described as a 'Bourne'-style thriller, though it sounds more like 'Men in Black' without the humor [Variety] ... If Camaros can come to life, why not gargoyles? Disney is developing a story centering on the stone creatures that have adorned buildings since medieval times as powerful symbols of good and evil. The untitled project -- which will be set in modern times -- is being produced by Lauren Shuler Donner and Jack Leslie via the Donners' Co. The studio has hired Zoe Green ('Tigress,' 'Book of Shadows') to develop the story. [HeatVision]

Olivia Crocicchia, who plays Denis Leary's youngest daughter on 'Rescue Me,' has been cast opposite John C. Reilly in the indie comedy 'Terri.' According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film centers on a large 14-year-old boy who has a difficult time adjusting to life in his small town. Crocicchia will play a pretty but sad girl who helps him cope.

Robert "Bob" Kerrey is in final negotiations to head the Motion Picture Association of America, according to a report in The Hollywood Reporter. Kerrey told Don Imus on his syndicated show that he is "talking very seriously" with the MPAA. Kerrey -- who served as Nebraska's governor and represented the state as a senator in Congress, most recently was president of The New School in New York City. There have been only three leaders of the MPAA since its founding: Jack Valenti, who served from 1966 to 2004; Dan Glickman, who served from 2004 until 2009, and Bob Pisano, who has been interim CEO since Glickman left.